Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
The National Fertilizers Limited is a Mini Ratna PSU under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. It is head quartered at Noida.
Recently, it is in news because, it has surpassed its productions targets by producing 16.11 Lakh MT of urea in first 5 months of 2020-21. This figure is 13% higher compared to the production made by the company during the same period of previous year.

Notes:
The Results of the 2nd edition of “Ranking of States on Support to Start-up Ecosystems – 2019” was released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
The ranking exercise has been carried out by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). The ranking frame work has 7 broad reform areas, consisting of 30 action points. In this ranking exercise, 22 States and 3 Union Territories participated.

Notes:
The United Kingdom (UK) has entered into an Economic Partnership Agreement with Japan.
This partnership is seen as a historic move, since this is the first trade agreement signed by the UK post Brexit. The agreement is said to foster trade between the two countries by about 15 billion Euros.

Notes:
Indian technology major Infosys has announced to acquire the European firm GuideVision.
Guidevision is one of the largest service sector enterprises in Europe, which is into service management consultancy specialised in offering strategic advisory. The acquisition agreement would cost Infosys up to 30 million Euro, which includes earn outs and bonuses.

Notes:
India has voted in favour of a COVID-19 resolution in the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA), along with 168 nations.
The resolution reaffirms international cooperation to respond to COVID. It also acknowledges the WHO’s leadership role during the pandemic. The U.S. and Israel voted against the resolution while Ukraine and Hungary abstained.

Notes:
The Phase-III of Back to Village (B2V) programme has been announced by Jammu and Kashmir administration to commence from October 2 for a period of 10 days.
Phase-I of the programme was launched to understand the people’s grievances. The phase 2 focused on the devolution of powers to Panchayats in the Union Territory. The phase 3 aims at grievance redressal.

Notes:
The procurement of Rice for the Kharif Crop Season of year 2020-21 is estimated at 495.37 lakh tonnes.
This estimate has been made by the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution. This estimate is 19.07 % more than the procurement estimates for 2019-20 marketing season. The actual procurement of rice in 2019-20 was the highest at 420.22 lakh tones.

Notes:
The Rajya Sabha has recently passed the Aircraft (Amendment) Bill 2020, which was tabled by Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri
The bill has already been cleared by the Lok Sabha in March this year. It seeks to convert aviation agencies like the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Bureau of Civil aviation security (BCAS) and Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) into statutory bodies. It also proposes heavy punishment for violations.

Notes:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is to set up a ‘Community response forum’ to analyse the impact of Stubble burning on places in and around Delhi.
The panel also aims to suggest possible solutions for the grave environmental issue. The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) of NASA will involve in developing this community forum. It also focusses on biomass burning and its impact on regional air quality in the Indian sub-continent.

Notes:
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting is scheduled to be held on 24th September 2020. The meeting would be held in a virtual mode through video conference.
The meeting would be chaired by Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Nepal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs. The foreign ministers of all the member countries would take part in the meeting. Ministers of India and Pakistan are also scheduled to meet.